


You're What I Know About Love

by astrivikia



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Found Family, Gen, Inspired by Frozen (Disney Movies), Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22021345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrivikia/pseuds/astrivikia
Summary: Angus McDonald is hired by Prince Taako to investigate the disappearance of Queen Lup.  A journey of found family and magic is about to unfold.
Relationships: Angus McDonald & Taako, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	You're What I Know About Love

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Iced Over](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19875967) by [Weevilo707](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707). 



> I got this fic idea back in July, thought to myself "I'm never going to get around to writing it" and requested it from Weevilo707. Of course, when they finished it, reading their take on it just made me all the more excited about the concept.
> 
> Queue 5 months later and I'm finally posting a prologue for my version. We'll see how well my follow through goes.

Angus McDonald was no fool. There was only one reason the prince would be summoning him to the palace. Everyone knew about the Queen’s disappearance; it wasn’t exactly something the royal family could hide. Word had been circulating through the detective circles that the prince had been tirelessly trying to determine the whereabouts of his sister.

Not all of what he heard was good. The prince had a very volatile reputation.

Angus had never met him; he rarely left the palace grounds since the disappearance, and before then, well, Angus had been very young when last the royals would occasionally make an appearance in the city.

All he had were vague memories of the two elf royals, pale hair caught in glimpses through the crowd. There was a magnetism to them, something almost otherworldly.

He glanced down at the invitation grasped in his hand. A broken silvery blue seal marked with the royal crest, sturdy parchment. The messy looping cursive scrawl inside was not what Angus would have expected, but it wasn’t his place to judge. Merely an observation.

If he was being called, then clearly the other detectives hadn’t been able to get any leads. For all that Angus asserted he was The World’s Greatest Detective, he knew hiring a 10 year old was never anyone’s first choice. Still, this was about as high profile of a client as you could get.

His shoes clacked on the stone road as he made his way to the palace gates. They rose in an intricate intertwining of blue and orange tinged metal. The guard arched an eyebrow at him, looking down at him with barely hidden confusion.

Angus repressed a sigh. He was used to this sort of reaction, but that didn’t make it any less annoying. Instead he inclined his head, holding out the invitation.

“Hello Sir, I’ve been summoned by his royal highness, Prince Taako.”

The guard eyed him incredulously as he accepted the offered piece of parchment, scanning over the distinctive scrawl of the prince’s handwriting.

“You’d better come in kid.” Angus grimaced slightly.

“Please sir, I would appreciate some professionalism.”

“Uhh-” The guard blinked down at him. “All the same, you’d better follow me Mr. McDonald.” He didn’t catch the small grin that crossed his face.

The guard exchanged a word with the other person posted at the gate, before leading him into the grounds.

The journey through the palace hallways was largely quiet, with Angus curiously observing as much of his surroundings as he could. A place could be just as important as the people in a case. And this was the home of the missing Queen. 

Angus glanced curiously at the person escorting him down the hall. For such a large building, he’d yet to see any other staff since they’d come inside. He’d heard bits and pieces of a large decrease in staff after the disappearance.

Thinking on it now, he suspected it had far less to do with a change in the actual workload around the palace, and far more to do with a change of demeanor.

He murmured his thanks as he was left in front of a set of double doors. They rose far taller than Angus, which in itself wasn’t much of a feat. The fact that they rose far higher than an average person was the more interesting observation.

The boy detective took a slow breath to ground himself. He had very little idea what to expect as he raised his hand to knock on the door. Probably best that way, no need to make assumptions about the prince before even meeting him.

From the other side of the door came a “Come in.” The voice had an impatient lilt to it. He thought he caught something else muttered after it, but whatever it was it was too quiet for him to hear, and probably hadn’t been meant for him to hear at all. 

Alright Angus, stay gathered and focused. He turned the doorknob, stepping softly into the room. His eyes swept over the space, immediately drawn to the elven prince draped in an overly casual manner in a chair by a small table.

“Hello your royal highness,” he greeted. The elf’s ears twitched, annoyance if Angus were to venture a guess. Icy blue eyes focused critically on him, like he was picking him apart. Angus straightened under the scrutiny.

“Angus huh? Well don’t just stand there.” He gestured at the chair across from him.

“Yes your royal highness.” There was that ear twitch again. He made his way over to the offered chair.

“Listen, boy detective.” It was Angus’s turn to twitch. “If you keep being this formal we’re not gonna get anywhere. We're gonna save a lot of time if you just call me Taako."

This had not been how Angus had anticipated the beginning of this conversation. "That would be disrespectful your royal highness!"

Taako pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kid, I am being 100% serious when I say fuck that."

"But-"

"Nuh-uh, Taako has spoken, isn't the disrespectful thing to not listen to your prince?"

There was a beat of silence as Angus regarded him. "I suppose so sir...."

"Listen, we'll work on it." Taako sighed, waving his hand dismissively. “Let's cut to the chase here. You came highly recommended.” He arched an eyebrow, leaning back in the chair to regard him.

“I’m the world’s greatest detective sir.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it boychik.” Angus frowned slightly, trying to keep his expression professionally neutral.

"With all due respect sir, as long as we're setting some rules of etiquette, I'd appreciate you not giving me nicknames when we've only just met. You're my client after all. It's unprofessional."

Taako rolled his eyes. “Get me some results capiche? Cause no one else has. Then we can talk about professionalism.”

Angus could rise to the challenge. “Yes sir.”

* * *

Angus looked over at the dragonborn escorting him down the palace corridor. She was on the small side, with blue green scales that shimmered in the soft hallway light.

"How long have you known the prince miss?" He asked, both trying to fill the silence and hopefully gain some information that would help him out in the case. If he didn't know anything about his client he was going to have a hard time getting anywhere.

He had a sneaking suspicion that was part of the reason the previous detectives had made so little progress. While his royal highness acted very casual and flippant, Angus could tell it was a defense of someone who was actually very guarded. The prince had shoved a folder of relevant information at him, and then practically shooed him back out the door.

"I've only known him about half a year. He keeps to himself a lot. But he doesn't have a problem giving you a piece of his mind if you piss him off." She smiled wryly at him, a fangy thing that somehow didn't have any threatening edge to it.

Angus grinned back. "I'm sure he won't be the most difficult client I've ever had."

Carey snorted softly. "You might have to eat those words kid. You don't know the prince." Angus smirked slightly.

"Well that will have to change if I want to get anywhere with this case. Surely he has to know that." He glanced sidewise at the dragonborn.

"I don't think Taako has any sense of what he needs to do to solve this. And if he doesn't want to do something good luck making him do anything."

“I guess I have my work cut out for me then.

* * *

Angus settled with the folder of case notes the prince had given him. The elf refused to let him take it off the palace premises, so he was sitting in a chair in the large library, papers pored over the surface of the table.

Crisp winter light was spilling in through the windows taking up the majority of the far wall, leaving very little need for the candelabra along the wall at the current time.

The papers detailed what the other detectives had been able to figure out, as well as the info Prince Taako had to start off with.

Queen Lup had last been seen early the previous spring. Reports from those who had spoken to her prior to her departure had said she was travelling to a neighboring kingdom, but there had been precious few other details on why. 

Correspondence with the royals there confirmed she had arrived. She spent most of her time in their royal library researching something. She had left within a week. Somewhere on her journey back she had disappeared.

Unfortunately, the Queen had been travelling alone, so there were no others to question about where in her journey she could have gone astray.

The most they had was from the guards who had seen her off on each side of her journey, and the information she had given Taako prior to leaving.

It wasn't a lot. The trip hadn't been scheduled, and the note in the file only had a cryptic, "Back Soon". That was over 6 months ago. Angus stared at the information, looking for any threads to follow up on.

First things first, talk to the guards who had seen her off. It may have been where the others started, but that didn't mean there still wasn't something there. He thought it would be more useful to talk to the guards from the other kingdom, but that would be far harder to arrange. For now he would have to do with their written correspondence. 

Puffing out his cheeks, he gathered the papers back into their folder, taking some notes of his own in a small bound notebook.

He needed to start making some semblance of progress, limited as his leads were, or he knew the prince would be likely to write him off.


End file.
